“RUN RUN RUN.”
“This was the dumbest thing I have ever done!”
“GOOD KEEP RUNNING.”
“I can’t keep up! You’re running too fast! I don’t think they’re following! Hold on, hold on! I think we’re okay!” Fimbo found herself laughing as she ran, panting for air, shaking her head as her body trembled with adrenaline coursing through her. She slowed her running down, unable to sustain the speed of a cheetah, or even attain it, and looking back behind her. There was no sign of the angry herd of antelope, and she let out a laugh as she looked over at her new company. She hadn’t known the cheetah for more than a few hours, and they had already almost died together.
It was the promise of an awesome friendship.
Except the cheetah was quite a distance off, having not stopped until she realized Fimbo was no longer following. She only noticed this by glancing back, as the wind in her ear had cut her ability to hear Fimbo yelling for her. She had been too busy yelling ‘run run’ anyway. Leaving the gouges in the dirt she had left behind after coming to an abrupt stop, Poromoko trotted back to Fimbo, looking wary, ears back as she checked for angry, stampeding prey beasts. There were none to be seen, and she heaved a sigh of relief.
“Man, did you see how angry they got?! You’d think a lion never tried to eat one of them before!” Poro hooted once they were reunited, butting her head against the purple lioness’s and laughing wildly. She flopped over onto the ground to catch her breath. She rolled around, then put her paws in the air, still laughing, kicking and hooting on her back. Fimbo was laughing as well, shaking her head and trying to catch her breath long enough to actually say something. But she couldn’t get anything out for a very long time, with the constant fits of giggles.
At last, she drew a deep, almost haggard breath, and eeped out some words.
“That was the best thing ever. The best thing. Ever.”
Poromoko agreed. They had only just met and after spending an hour or so just chatting and getting to know one another, Fimbo explaining what she was looking for and Poro, with significantly less to say, told her that was as good a reason as any to be out wandering around. At least she had one, the cheetah had said, since Poro herself was just wandering for the sake of it. With her son grown and gone off on his own, she had absolutely nothing to tie her down to any one place. Fimbo and Poromoko had agreed that Fimbo would wait at the water, when she found her father, and some day Poro would meet up with her, and they’d hang out again for a little while.
Of course, they had also decided to separate this time with a bang.
At first, it had been out of food. They were hungry, and opted to catch something and eat it, as was the way of greater predators such as they were. So they found an antelope and Fimbo had tried to catch it. It ran and the two gave chase, Poro using her superior speed to herd it back towards the more powerful lioness. And then they had met its entirely family, and every friend it had ever made, and a bunch of strangers it probably didn’t know as well. In fact, Fimbo was certain it had been every antelope in the savannah, all gathered in one spot.
And they had all decided at one moment to not take being hunted as meals any more. They were tired of it, clearly, and the two were suddenly finding themselves in unfamiliar territory. Running away from food. The giant herd had torn after them, and it had been terrifying. In a thrilling, hilarious, awesome way. Both Fimbo and Poromoko were both young in spirit and body, and clicked in a way that had been difficult for either to find before. They didn’t need anything concrete, agreeing that ‘some time’ they would see each other again, and it would be even better than this.
Probably no less dangerous, now that they had gotten a taste of it, but certainly in a grander way.
Coming down from a new giggle fit, Fimbo shook her head, sitting down and breathing heavily. All the running and laughing had left her lungs burning painfully, and she was actually glad the laughing was passing. It felt like her lungs were going to implode, even her throat and chest hurting from it all. She saw the Poromoko was no better off, having rolled back onto her stomach and was taking slow breaths. They looked at each other and it threatened to start all over again, but they kept themselves in order. Fimbo shook her head one more time, this time feeling normal.
“Alright, that was awesome.”
“It really was.”
“But we didn’t get any food, did we? I’m still hungry,” she sighed, looking over her shoulder. She doubted they would get away with slinking over to that herd again and trying to pick one off while no one was looking. She imagined they would all be looking, every where, at all times. And yet both predators were looking back the way they had come, considering things carefully. The lioness was the first to decide she was not up to the risk, and sighed, looking back at Poro, who eventually dropped the idea as well.
“We could go somewhere else, I guess? There might be a much… smaller… herd of zebra nearby somewhere, or something. Maybe we can get one of those.”
“If there are any,” Fimbo agreed. They both got up at their own leisure, no rush compelling them to move too fast.
Eventually, they did get themselves some food. They found an antelope and took the risk, and it turned out this one was not as well liked by the whole community as the other one. So they managed to catch it and shared it between themselves, talking idly and giggling about the irony of the catch, and making jokes about why this one hadn’t resulted in near death by stampede. After eating their fill and running out of clever quips, though, they decided to nap before traveling together until, as they had agreed, Poro got bored of one direction and went off on her own again.
But they would meet at the water, when Fimbo found her dad. It was a flimsy plan, at best, but neither seemed to care and, more importantly, both were looking forward to it. Sure, they could have just traveled together and saved the trouble, but there was something entertaining, even exciting, about the prospect of finding each other again. Maybe that would be enough to justify throwing themselves into another dangerous situation.
(Word Count: 1,153 in Word)
